


No More Heroes: Family Bonding

by WrestleCrazyGamer



Category: No More Heroes (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Bonding in unconventional ways, Canon-Typical Violence, Family Bonding, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Oh lord the blood, Paranormal, Post-Canon, Travis tries to be a good dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:20:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27219280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrestleCrazyGamer/pseuds/WrestleCrazyGamer
Summary: One morning Travis wakes up and Sylvia tells him she's going overseas to take care of some business for three weeks. In that time he's going to be looking after Travis Jr., or simply "Junior". That means taking the little guy with him to assassination jobs and following Sylvia's very specific list of rules and the schedule she's been using with him. If Sylvia gets back and a single hair on Junior is out of place, Travis knows what'll happen. Things take a turn for the supernatural as Junior's doll, Dolly, looks to be more than it seems...
Relationships: Travis Touchdown/Sylvia Christel
Kudos: 1





	No More Heroes: Family Bonding

**Author's Note:**

> *Employing canon divergence because there's bits and pieces of the canon I don't wanna build around. The story and events of NMH1, 2, and Travis Strikes Back remain largely unchanged. With that out of the way, strap in!

It was a beautiful morning as Travis woke up to the sweet aroma of coffee, freshly brewed. He followed his nose and found Sylvia fully dressed with a suitcase.

“I have business overseas, Travis. I will be gone no longer than three weeks.” Sylvia smiled.

“All right. Junior loves flying.” Travis smiles.

“Oh, Junior will not be coming with me, Travis. It is high time that you had some father son bonding time.” she told him, planting a kiss on his lips.

“I’ve got assassination contracts to carry out, I can’t take him with me to that…” he told her.

“You can and you will, Travis. You are the #1 ranked assassin in the world. If you can’t protect your son while handling a job then what kind of assassin are you?” she scoffed, booping his nose.

“Well I… fine…” Travis sighed in defeat as she walked to fetch her suitcase.

“Oh, and when I get back…” she smiled seductively over her shoulder.

“Yes…?” Travis smiled, anticipating her next words.

“If there is a single hair out of place on Junior’s head… need I say more, Travis?” she giggled, aiming a magnum handgun at him.

“Nope! I’ve got it all under control, Junior will be in the exact same condition he is right now when you get back! We’ll bond really well while you’re gone!” Travis nodded quickly in a panic, giving two thumbs up.

“Good. I love you, Travis. Make sure Junior knows that mommy will miss him while she’s gone. There’s a list of his allergies and do’s and don’ts in the desk drawer, refer to it for everything you do.” Sylvia smirked, kissing Travis one last time before leaving the house.

Travis swallowed nervously as the car left the drive. Now that he thought about it he didn’t spend too much time with his son. He got dressed and then gently opened the door of a child’s bedroom. Sound asleep in bed was a little boy with short black hair. This is Travis Jr., named at Sylvia’s insistence, almost exclusively referred to as Junior. The most Travis knew about him was that he’s five this year. Travis gave him a very gentle shake to wake him up.

“Hey, morning sleepyhead.” Travis smiled wide.

“Where’s mommy…?” he asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Mommy’s gonna be on a business trip for three weeks, so in that time it’ll just be you and me. Exciting stuff, eh? It’ll be great. We’ll hang out, you’ll get to see daddy work, you hopefully will not accrue mental scars, and with any luck mommy won’t shoot me with her big johnson when she gets home.” Travis answered.

“What’s a big johnson?” he asked.

“Mommy’s gun, her idea of a funny joke, but that’s not important right now. Know what is? Getting some breakfast in your belly.” Travis smiled nervously.

He lifted Junior and carried him to the dining room table where he got him some cereal. While he was eating, Travis snuck to the desk in Sylvia’s at-home office to retrieve the list she mentioned. He couldn’t find it anywhere and began to panic. That’s when he spotted a list clearly marked do’s and don’ts pinned to the corkboard with a sticky note attached. The note read “In case I forgot to tell you about the list. -Sylvia”.

“She’s a little too thorough at times.” he sighed with relief.

He got the list and began reading through it. Junior has a mild peanut allergy, they make him break out in hives, but other than a slight dog allergy he has no other issues. When it comes to caring for Junior it even had a planned schedule for things. After breakfast he’s to bathe and be dressed by seven. Looking at the time it was already 6:42. Junior had just finished breakfast too so he tried not to look panicked.

“All done? Okay, bath time, kiddo.” Travis smiled, lifting him again.

While Junior was in there he resumed reading the list. His meal times were pretty standard as far as kids go. It listed foods he doesn’t like and foods he loves along with things he’s irrationally afraid of. On the second page was a list of things outlined in red with big bold letters as “DANGER: FAILURE TO MEET WILL RESULT IN CRYING - DO NOT MAKE HIM CRY”. The very first item on the list was he goes nowhere without “Dolly”, and if he does not have Dolly waiting for him by the time he’s done with bath time he will begin to panic. 

There’s was a helpful sketch of Dolly by it too - it looked simple enough, an ugly ragdoll with no hair or clothes and buttons for eyes with a yarn-sewn smile. Looking at the time it was almost time for bath time to end, making Travis sprint to Junior’s room looking for it. He checked the bed, he checked the toy box, even the closet, but Dolly was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is it, where is it? I’ve got two minutes till he gets out…” he groaned, looking frantically.

Travis then got an idea since Junior’s bed is against the wall. He laid down on the floor and sure enough there was Dolly, the plain brown rag doll. There were countless other toys down there too. He breathed a sigh of relief as he fetched it and hurried back to the bathroom to put Dolly by his fresh clothes. Checking his watch he was on time.

“Okay, kiddo, all cleaned up?” Travis laughed.

When he entered the room he immediately slipped on a bar of soap hitting the back of his head. It took everything he had not to swear as Junior looked at him apologetically.

“Let’s get you dried off and dressed, okay…?” Travis smiled despite the pain he was in.

Once Junior was nice and clean he put on blue jeans and a blue t-shirt. He then held Dolly close, nuzzling the doll. Travis could have sworn for a split second that the doll hugged him back, but it must have been his mind playing tricks on him.

“Okay, daddy has some jobs he has to take care of for work, so we’ll be going on a little road trip together.” Travis told him.

Travis then opened the garage and noticed the side car had been installed on his motorcycle ahead of time. He buckled Junior in and got his helmet on before mounting the bike himself.

“Aren’t you gonna wear a helmet too?” Junior asked him.

“Eh? Ah, don’t worry about your old man. I’m a safe driver.” he winked.

“You could still get hurt though…” he whimpered.

Travis then quickly whipped out the list. Number two on the list of red text was “Do not make him anxious about his or your own safety”. Travis let out a sigh before getting off to fetch a helmet for himself. He couldn’t really blame him, being so little.

“Daddy will be fine now.” he smiled, tapping his helmet.

The first job was just outside of Santa Destroy. The target was someone apparently taking kids from the local high school to perform rituals of some kind. Travis took a deep breath before looking at the list really fast. It didn’t mention anything explicitly about him being squeamish or anything. It did list that he’s not to be away from Junior longer than ten minutes though.

“Junior, daddy has to… uh… get violent with these people ahead, okay? You can stay here in the car if you want…” Travis smiled.

“O-Okay…” he nodded.

“I won’t be longer than ten minutes.” he assured him.

Travis then hurried toward the objective point in the woods. Not long after he was set upon by wolves, making him cut them apart with his beam katana. Some looked like regular old wolves, but others had weird green eyes like they were plant-based. Eventually cultists began coming at him making him cut them all down. It wasn’t long before he started seeing discarded corpses of teenage girls. Disgusted, he pressed on to find the ritual site to find a ceremony already going on. A glowing gem was floating above the body of a girl with long brown hair. Travis leapt over the cultists who came at him to whack it like a bat, making it shatter. A pulse of green energy then burst out as a high pitched scream made everyone cover their ears.

Travis was first to recover and began to deal with the cultists one by one. Between his wrestling moves and his swordsmanship they didn’t stand a chance against him. When the last one fell he scooped the jewel’s remains into a black bag he had in his jacket. This should be sufficient evidence that he cleaned up the cult and they shouldn’t be a problem anymore. He then noticed the girl on the pedestal was still alive.

“Make sure you get home safe, okay? I gotta go.” Travis nodded, checking his wristwatch for the time.

He hurried back to the motorcycle and found a bloodbath around it. Tons of cultist bodies were mangled. Junior was sitting where he left him, but he looked as bewildered as Travis did.

“Did you do this…?” Travis asked nervously.

“Dolly did.” he shook his head.

Travis looked at Dolly and it now had the appearance of Cloe Walsh to his shock. He checked back with the notes and it showed Dolly’s new shape. He rubbed his eyes to be sure, but no, they matched. He shook it off as his imagination and got on the bike. Around lunch time when they stopped at Nightmare Burger it’d changed appearance again, this time looking like Margaret Moonlight. Travis double checked and once more they matched. What was going on here? That is two appearance changes, though Junior didn’t look to be concerned at all about Dolly’s wardrobe.

“Junior. Can Dolly… change clothes by chance?” he asked him.

“Dolly does that sometimes. I asked her before and she said she likes the outfits. She’s silly like that.” Junior beamed.

“Oh, okay. Hold it, ‘she’ and ‘said’...?” Travis spoke before realizing what he just said.

“Is it weird for Dolly to talk to me? We say good night every day. Dolly gets mad if I forget.” he tilted his head.

“Uh… no, not at all. H-How long has Dolly been talking to you?” Travis asked nervously.

“The day mommy bought her in a funny-looking shop. She fell in the cart on her own, but mommy didn’t believe me and said ‘it’s okay to ask for things when you want them’. Dolly said something that night before bed.” he explained.

“Funny-looking…? Earl’s Voodoo Shack? With the weird tiki heads out front?” Travis asked.

“Yeah there were big tiki heads.” he nodded.

“I knew I shoulda finished that guy off instead of faking it…” Travis sighed.

“Why?”

“Ignore that. Just daddy rambling. Let’s get some food.” he smiled.

Travis couldn’t help thinking about the fact Dolly was not just some doll. The real question was why is it taking the shape of women he’s killed? After lunch he decided to make a pitstop at Earl’s. Junior was busy looking around the toy section as Travis approached the front desk. The balding fat guy himself, Earl, was manning the register.

“Who made the doll, Earl?” Travis demanded.

“I can’t tell you that. We’ve got a client secrecy policy.” he replied nervously.

“Don’t play that game, Earl. That’s my kid holding that thing, and it killed people today. It saved my ass by proxy, but I still wanna know who made it and why it’s mimicking the dead.” Travis scowled.

“I can’t tell you, Travis, I can’t. She’ll kill me. I can… I can arrange for you to meet her though, I just need time. Gimme a day, two tops, I can get her to see ya.” he blathered in a panic.

“You’d better not be lying. You know how I can get when it comes to the people close to me…” he scowled.

“I’m telling the truth I swear.” he whimpered.

“One last thing… some taffey for the kid.” Travis narrowed his eyes.

“Right away, sir.” Earl nodded rapidly.

When they left Travis stopped by a special black box and dropped the bag of fragments in it. Junior looked at it curiously as Travis then did a fingerprint scan on it.

“Job well done, Mr. Touchdown.” a computer voice spoke.

“Okay, on to the next one.” Travis sighed.

“What does daddy do for work?” Junior asked.

“Daddy… uh… fights crime. On a… uh… a different level than the authorities. Daddy’s gotta keep it secret or he could get in trouble, okay?” he answered.

“Mommy’s work is like that too.” Junior nodded.

“ _ Mommy usually gives me my contracts. I’ll be relying on the UAA for gigs until she gets back... _ ” Travis chuckled to himself.

The next stop on their trip was an old warehouse outside of Santa Destroy by a good few miles. Travis had Junior get out with him and hide behind a thick stack of boxes. He then knocked on the doors of the warehouse.

“Room service~!” Travis called out before ducking for cover.

Bullets then riddled the door from top to bottom. Once the hailstorm subsided the doors of the warehouse fell off their hinges. Travis then charged in and began cutting up gang members. After the last goon fell, only a man with slicked back hair in a mafia suit was left. He was sitting on a throne made of counterfeit cash with a mechanical right arm, smoking a cigar.

“Gibby? Come on, we talked about this, bud. You said you were gonna go straight.” Travis snickered.

“It’s Gabriel. We’ve been over this, Touchdown.” the man huffed, making his cigar burn down to the butt in a single huff before blowing out black smoke.

“Whatever, Gabby.” he shrugged.

He got off the money throne and Travis tried to cut him, but he stopped his beam katana dead with his mechanical arm. With one kick he then sent Travis rolling out of the warehouse.

“Robo-limbs, sweet, might make you last slightly longer than most schmucks.” Travis laughed, hopping to his feet.

“Who do you think I have to thank for the need to get prosthetics?” Gabriel snarled, walking toward him.

“Come on, you’re three-fourths Terminator, I’m jealous personally.” Travis laughed, clashing with him.

“Shut up!”

The two continued to fight and he startled Travis by launching his arm as a rocket, knocking him into the boxes Junior was hiding in. He groaned, rubbing his jaw, as the arm returned to Gabriel.

“You have a rocket arm!? That is so fucking cool!” Travis cried, getting up.

“Fucking…?” Junior spoke, making Travis freeze.

“Do  _ not _ repeat that word. Pretend you never heard it. Mommy will be very angry if she hears you say that.” Travis ordered.

“You brought a child to an assassination gig…?” Gabriel questioned.

“I didn’t have a choice!” Travis cried in defense of himself, charging back into the fray.

After several minutes of fighting Gabriel launched one fist knocking Travis back, though he blocked it. Travis then noticed him aiming his leg, but his target wasn’t Travis.

“NOOOOO!!!”

Gabriel fired and Travis tried to get in the way, but Dolly’s left arm then inflated to abnormal size to catch the rocket leg, twirl Junior with its momentum, and throw it back at Gabriel, slamming into his jaw. Travis couldn’t believe what he just saw as Gabriel began getting up. Dolly protected Junior. It now had the appearance of Jeane as well. Travis shook it off and focused on the more important fact - Gabriel tried to hurt Junior. He stomped over and very quickly decapitated Gabriel.

In a fit of anger, Travis began whacking and hacking Gabriel’s body. When he finished, breathing heavily, he looked at Junior finding him mortified at the sight.

“Hey… uh… sorry you had to see daddy like that. I just… uh… just lost my cool a minute. I’m fine now.” Travis chuckled nervously.

“You’re covered in blood…” Junior whimpered.

“Yeah, yeah, daddy is gonna have to clean up when we get home.” he nodded, looking himself over.

When Travis got on the bike his cell phone started going off. Pulling it out the screen showed a picture of him and Sylvia on the beach, Travis sound asleep with marker drawings on his face. He instantly answered it.

“Hey babe.” Travis smiled.

“Travis, is Junior okay?” Sylvia asked, seeming a little panicked.

“Yeah, yeah, he’s great! We’ve been having a good time. I just wrapped up that warehouse job you got me and we’re gonna head back to the house so I can get changed.” Travis replied.

“Does he have Dolly with him?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course, list said he won’t go anywhere without it.” he nodded.

“Her.” Junior corrected.

“Right, her. Sorry. I made su-huh…? A-About Dolly, honey, uh, did you know about the uh… talking to him? She can, uh, she can change her outfit on a whim too...” Travis asked.

“I knew about the outfits, but it’s talking to him too?” Sylvia asked.

“Uh, yeah, he said that he says good morning and good night to Dolly every day and she replies. She supposedly talks to him during the day too.” he answered.

“Listen carefully, Travis. Whatever you do, do not let him get separated from Dolly. I’m having someone get in contact with you but they won’t be able to see you until tomorrow.” Sylvia told him.

“Right. I mean, that’s already on the list, so I just gotta be really on top of it. No biggie.” Travis chuckled.

“You haven’t taught him anything weird, have you?” Sylvia asked, and he could just feel her scornful look.

“No ma’am. All normal stuff here.” he chuckled nervously.

“Don’t forget to have him in bed on time. If his sleep schedule is ruined when I get back, Travis, you and I will be having a very serious talk…” Sylvia threatened.

“Of course. I’m following the list just like you told me to.” Travis smiled.

“I’ve got to go. I love you both. Tell Junior that mommy misses him.” Sylvia ordered before hanging up.

“That was your mother. She was checking in, she misses us a lot.” Travis smiled.

“Okay. I miss her too. Dolly isn’t too fond of mommy though. She said she’s scary.” Junior smiled.

“Huh… well, let’s get home before this stuff dries into my clothes.” Travis smiled nervously.

When they got home Travis took a nice shower to get cleaned up. The rest of the day he spent relaxing with some video games, keeping Junior closeby. He seemed happy enough, playing super hero with Dolly. Dinner made Junior pretty tired, but at the least he seemed to enjoy Travis’s cooking. After putting Junior to bed at nine sharp Travis decided to hit the hay himself. He’d need to if he’s going to keep up with Sylvia’s normal schedule for him.

In the dark of night the hairs on the back of Travis’s neck began to stand making him roll from the bed as something stabbed where his head was. He dodged and rolled around dodging various attempts by the attacker to hit him. After a close dodge he darted in and german suplexed his assailant with all his might. He then flipped the light switch to shockingly find nothing there. Cautiously he stepped forward and looked under the bed and his heart nearly leapt into his throat. Dolly was there lying under his bed in the shape of Alice Twilight. It even had little fake extensions like she did.

“Okay… I guess Dolly doesn’t like  _ me _ either.” Travis swallowed nervously.

He then quietly returned Dolly to its place by Junior before returning to his room. The damage to the bedroom was real, that was for certain. Just for safety’s sake, Travis slept with the bedroom light on and his beam katana under the sheets with him.


End file.
